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Provenance has the ability to make a relatively ordinary watch extraordinary. This is especially true in the auction world, where a watch owned by an important historical figure can result in a phenomenal final hammer price. In Bonhams’ upcoming What Dreams Are Made Of sale, which features memorabilia from nearly 100 years of cinema history, what caught our eye, naturally, was one of the few horological items: a Rolex Oyster Perpetual Ref. 6011 owned by legendary actor Clark Gable.

Grahame Fowler and his West Village shop are a bit of a New York fashion institution. He is universally revered for his earnest designs, top-tier taste, and a quality rarely found in men's clothing of today – his eponymous label is designed and produced right here in New York City. He sells hand-made boots by Trickers and Oak Street, and the kind of vintage Levis and Barbour jackets that would make McQueen proud. Grahame Fowler is the real deal. And so is his watch collection.

This week saw the beginning of the finals of the America's Cup, the world's premier yacht racing event. Each reigning champion holds the cup until a challenger steps forward, and in 1964, Daniel Putnam Brown, Jr. was on the team that successfully defended the America's Cup. Brown was presented with this awesome ref. 5513 Submariner by Rolex during the event. Today the watch is up for sale by Fourtané on 1stdibs.com and we have the exclusive story here.

If you're anything of a golf fan, it gets no bigger than Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus. And if you're anything of a gold fan AND a watch fan, then you likely know that both of these two legendary players each wear trademark timepieces, and they both happen to be yellow gold Rolex Day-Dates. And now, you have the chance to own the person Presidents of these two great men, including one watch that was presented to Nicklaus after winning the 1980 US Open!

Vintage Rolex collecting is a funny thing. One can never be sure just how rare or valuable a watch will be because new things are being discovered daily. Today, our executive editor tells us about a close encounter with one of (if not THE) rarest, most valuable Rolex Daytona in the world. It is called the "Albino" Daytona, and the watch was made famous by Eric Clapton when his sold at auction in 2008 for $505,000. This example is completely fresh-to-market, and while it may not look like much, this is one for the ages. Read on for the full story of this incredible Albino Daytona.

Flipping through this week's New Yorker, I stumbled across what is the
first advertisement in a new campaign from Rolex. And the reason that
you're seeing it here is it is the absolute best campaign I've seen from
Rolex in a long time. The ad shows 10 people - 10 people you all know -
from Rolex ambassadors Tiger Woods and Roger Federer, to Marlon Brando,
Robert DeNiro, Pablo Picasso, and Martin Luther King Jr, all wearing
their Rolexes.

​This afternoon in Geneva, Antiquorum held its spring sale. One watch that everyone was closely watching was the Paul Newman Daytona above. What made this one so interesting was its unique dial, which is a lemon color (as opposed to cream), with white markers in the sub-registers (as opposed to gold). What's more, and to us what made this watch REALLY special is its serial number, which indicates this watch could very well be one of the first reference 6263 Daytonas ever built.

What's there to say about this watch? A lot, really. The Daytona is
arguably the most sacred watch to Rolex collectors, rivaled only perhaps
by the Submariner. And coming into Basel World 2013, expectations for a
50th anniversary Daytona were really, really high. The assumption was,
for some reason, that we'd see something that would resemble a reference 6263 Daytona
- with a black Cerachrom bezel placed atop the existing stainless steel
model. That's not what we got - instead we the very first Cosmograph
to be made in the noblest of all metals - platinum. What does this
mean? Read on for some thoughts, tons of live pics, and full pricing
details.

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Friday March 3, 2012

HODINKEE is one of the most widely read wristwatch publications in the world. Launched in 2008 by then 25-year-old Benjamin Clymer, the site quickly gained notoriety for earnest looks at some of the industry’s most interesting, and occasionally forgotten timepieces.